You Don't Want to be Alone
by jenniferrari
Summary: When Touko met N in Accumula Town, she knew she recognized him from somewhere. Chapters alternate between Touko's childhood and her teenage years traveling through Unova. {ONGOING}
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"Hello! Who are you?"

The boy shied away, his eyes wide and scared. She thought she had never seen such a bright green in someone's eyes before. It reflected the colors of the forest.

She had been digging for about an hour, searching for treasure, and then she gave it up and began searching for wild Pokémon instead. In neither endeavor was she altogether successful. But then she found this boy, wearing an orange shirt that was easy to spot amidst all the greenery and beauty of the woods.

"It's okay, I won't bite!" She laughed, her voice like a ringing bell. When she still got no response, she said, "Here, I'll go first. I'm Touko. There, it's easy!"

The boy looked as if he was about to say something; he opened his mouth, yet no sound came out. He had a small, black Pokémon in his arms: a Zorua, by the looks of it. It squealed happily when Touko looked at it and leaped out of the boy's grasp to sniff her ankle.

"Your Zorua is so cute! Where did you catch it?" She crouched down and tilted her head so far to the side that she toppled over, where the Zorua proceeded to lick her cheek.

The boy nearly cracked a smile, but didn't answer her question. Her mouth fell slightly open when she looked at him and noticed all his features at once: the adorable face, the light green hair, the strange necklace he wore, and the other strange cube-shaped artifact hanging from a chain in his pocket…

"What's this?" she asked excitedly, grabbing it with a hand that had just spent an hour digging in the dirt.

"No!" he yelped, his gaze horrified. Touko was so surprised he said anything that she nearly dropped it, but he snatched it out of her hand before it could fall.

Instead of becoming upset at being yelled at, Touko laughed aloud. "You're funny!" she crowed. "And weird. Let's be friends, okay? Where do you live?"

The boy frowned, put the cube back in his pocket, and looked away.

Touko paused. "…That's okay! I'll come back tomorrow. Same spot, same time? Great! Okay, bye!"

She rose to her feet and wiped her hands on her brand new white dress. Then, as she started to run off, he called after her.

"My name is N!"

Touko slowed to a trot and stopped in her tracks. Turning around, she flashed N the biggest grin he had ever seen, then turned right back around and began running again, into the darkness of the forest.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi guys, I really hope you liked my first ever fanfiction! I'll be posting more chapters to this soon, so keep a lookout for those! Hope you liked it~


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Touko wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and smiled. She had been traveling only a little while, but the excitement of the journey had already gotten to her; she sped through the first few routes connecting Nuvema Town to Accumula. Bianca and Cheren were probably some ways ahead of her by now; she had no idea where they had gotten off to.

After giving her cherished Pokémon, Oshawott, a check-up at the Pokémon Center, she decided to search for a good training spot but was held up by a large group of people all gravitating toward the town center, a grassy area with benches and dotted with flowers.

Touko had always been interested in spectacles and fascinating events, so she didn't hesitate to follow the crowd. Squeezing her way to the front of the mob past numerous excited, chattering people, she found herself standing next to Cheren, somewhat surprised to see him there.

"Cheren? What's going on?" she asked, glancing around.

"It appears there's going to be a presentation of some sort, happening very soon," Cheren replied with a shrug. "I don't know what it's about, but chances are I can learn from it."

Touko grinned at his response; he'd always been calculating and clever, always looking for a solution or a new experience that he could gain knowledge from. As a child, Touko had been more spontaneous, and Cheren would never go with her on her many adventures into the forest near Nuvema Town. He was always too busy studying, most of the time about Pokémon.

Touko didn't think that a person needed to study about Pokémon to fully understand them. It was good enough that you could interact and communicate with them, try and form a bond with them, and travel together with them. That way you could learn about their distinct personalities and not just about their maximum amount of power or defense. Their greatest power, in Touko's opinion, came from the highest level of trust exhibited between Trainer and Pokémon.

Cheren and Touko said nothing more, listening to the crowd around them, their voices subsiding into one huge mass of indecipherable noise. But the voices quieted down when another group, in uniform and carrying flags as they walked in single file, escorted a heavily-robed, green-haired man to the front of the town center.

"I wonder who that is…" she murmured, but Cheren shushed her. Everyone else had fallen completely silent.

Touko glanced around the crowd once more; no one seemed to know what was going on, and nobody was acting particularly suspicious, so at first she disregarded everyone and started to focus on the main action. That was when she did a double-take, to a man at the very front, not too far away from her and Cheren, wearing a white long-sleeved button-down and khaki pants. She thought she saw something dangling from his neck, some sort of circular-shaped pendant, but she wasn't close enough to know for sure. But he was striking, with long green hair tied up in a ponytail that closely resembled the robed man standing in front of them. The image of him hit her like a brick, and she knew she recognized him from somewhere, but she couldn't tell quite where.

She shook her head to clear her frazzled mind and focused her attention back on the group before them. The green-haired man facing them introduced himself as Ghestis, and began to speak.

He spoke of Pokémon independence and the oppression of their Trainers. Of setting them free and letting them run in the wild, never to be imprisoned in a Poké Ball again. Touko was practically seething by the end of the speech; Pokémon weren't oppressed, at least not by everyone! Most Trainers held their Pokémon partners in high regard, some kept them as pets which they loved and cherished, and others just liked to be around Pokémon, either to study their habits or to be in their company. But bad Pokémon Trainers would always be put to justice. There was no need to release every Pokémon.

The entire crowd started chattering at once again, some of them actually contemplating Ghestis's words. But before Touko even had the chance to say something and voice her opinion, perhaps confront their guest speaker, he had been taken away, escorted once again by his posse of uniformed men. Team Plasma, they were called.

She didn't have time to think on it. She was thinking of too much at once. Touko wanted to keep an eye on that man who had struck her, ask his name. But the crowd had started milling about the town center again, preventing her from seeing him. She almost got separated from Cheren, but he kept a firm hold on her arm and they navigated to the edge of the group together.

Touko stood on the tips of her toes and shaded her eyes, looking around. Cheren gave her a questioning look.

"What are you even doing?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Did you see that younger man with the long green hair?" she asked.

"No. I saw the _older _man with the green hair who was talking to us. Speaking of him, what do you even think of what he was saying? It's all nonsense to me." Cheren rolled his eyes.

Touko frowned and faced him. "I think he's not going to stop with just talking to the people of Accumula Town. I think he's going to spread his opinion far and wide and we may have to stop it somehow."

Cheren looked skeptically at her, but although Touko was slightly distracted, she also knew she couldn't let Ghestis get away with something like this.

All of a sudden, there was a flash of green out of the corner of her eye. She whipped her head to the side to find the very man she was looking for headed straight toward them. And that's where she had the idea—he was that kid she met in the forest, who she talked to for a few months, actually—but she couldn't tell for sure without knowing his name.

_Is he N?_


End file.
